FRINGE INTERVIEW – The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

Hands up everyone who’s ever pulled a sock over their hand and made a puppet out of it…?

That’s about all of you then.

Now, keep them up if you’ve then pulled another sock over your other hand, and gone on to use them to create a hilariously funny and clever comedy show filled with wit, improvisation, songs and intentionally-shambolic lunacy…?

In a falsetto Scottish voice?

Anyone?

The only hands now remaining are those belonging to Kev F Sutherland, the multi-talented comedian, writer and comic artist who is once again bringing The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre to entertain and delight Edinburgh audiences at the Gilded Balloon at this year’s Fringe.

Although Kev himself was characteristically busy when we called, we did have the good fortune to be granted an audience with the Socks themselves.

Read on to find out what makes this close-knit pair tick…

This year’s show sees you return with ‘On The Telly’ – what can we expect from it?

This year we, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, prove once and for all why we should be on the telly with a stab at every genre of telly there is.

Name it, we do it.

How did you first meet?

Like lots of people in showbiz we met while sharing a line.

A clothes line.

With coke on it.

A casual observer might have difficulty telling you apart – do you have any amusing tales of being mistaken for each other or other times this has caused a problem?

Oh yeah, it’s all a Comedy of Errors round our place.

‘Hello Sock are you – oh sorry, I thought you were the other Sock, you know the one that’s never more than three or four feet away at any time.’

Not a big problem.

The Fringe wouldn’t be complete without the Socks appearing in the sweltering venue at the Gilded Balloon. How much does this take out of you and how do you both prepare for it?

In previous years we have, indeed, performed in venues hotter than a fat jogger’s jockstrap, but this year we are in the much bigger, lighter, airy room at the Gilded Balloon that they call The Sportsman’s.

Which ironically sounds like a fat jogger’s jockstrap. But isn’t.

How do you relax between shows?

We’d like to say we visit other shows and support our fellow thespians, but if we’re honest we hang over the top of a radiator and ming for 23 hours a day.

The Edinburgh Fringe is unique – what do you like best about it? Anything you wish could be a little different?

The best thing about the Fringe is all the shows and how brilliant the city of Edinburgh is.

The worst thing is all the people, there’s just too many of them.

So here’s an idea, why not move the Fringe to July, when there aren’t all the people here? Then we could all enjoy it better.

See, always thinking.

What do you have planned for after the Fringe? What is the Socks’ masterplan..?

In an ideal world we’ll begin filming our new TV series for the BBC in September, it’ll be a massive hit by Christmas, and we’ll get two seats around a table at the Baftas in March, booked by someone who really has worked out how this “being two sock puppets” thing works.

In reality we’re most likely to sit on a radiator and ming until our first tour dates start, in the first week of September (look out Elgin!)